I hate paperwork, and today I feel like I'm drowning in it.
Whoever came up with the idea of direct mail, I'm sorry, but I don't think I could even be remotely civil to you right now.
Of course, it's partly my own fault, for letting the junk pile up and telling myself over and over again, "I'll look at it later." I've been saying that since January, it seems, so you can imagine the state of things on my desk at the moment. (Come to think of it, where is my desk?!)
I have piles of paper all around me as I write, and if I had my way, I'd pick them all up and throw them into the recycle bin (be nice to the environment!), but I guess there's some stuff I should actually keep, like bank statements and such. I don't know why. I mean, I know why, but I'm bitter about it. I don't want to keep them. I don't ever look at them anyway, so what's the point?
And receipts! I have receipts everywhere, because people say I should keep them. I don't want to keep those either. I don't care about deductions. I just want the least amount of headache that I can possibly achieve, and it seems like keeping countless tiny slips of paper so that I can wade through them later and tally some up while tossing others isn't really conducive to headachelessness. I'm starting to get one right now, for goodness' sake.
I also have a terrible habit of scribbling notes to myself on any odd scrap that presents itself, wherever I happen to be...so I have a notepad next to the bed, and another one on the desk (I think), and note cards scattered around here and there (why on earth do I have note cards?!), and then I have things that I've printed out, like articles and such, but I've scribbled on them too because I couldn't find any of the notepads, or note cards, anywhere when I needed to jot a note to myself.
But it's all going to change. I have decided! I am going to be organized, and detail-oriented, and efficient, and all those other things you see on job descriptions everywhere these days. I think even janitors are supposed to be attentive to detail, and able to multi-task. (I sometimes wonder if these companies actually want human beings working for them, or if they are not-so-secretly longing for the day when robots will take over the earth.)
Anyway, I have a plan to get everything sorted out and filed neatly into appropriate compartments. It is a beautiful plan, with a classification system that would make a grown man weep. But first, I just have to jot a few notes to myself on my To Do list. When I find it.
2 comments:
I used to always want to do what they do on this one redecorating show. They take two rooms in a disorganized person's house and dump the entire contents outside, and I mean the ENTIRE contents. Then the disorganized person has to separate everything into 3 piles: keep, throw away, and sell (or give away). I really used to fantasize about taking everything I own and throwing it out on the lawn! The problem of course being that with my drive and go-gettem attitude (or lack thereof) my stuff would probably live on the lawn for the rest of my life. I have two pieces of advice that have helped me regain (a little) control over the paper: 1. Move. Nothing gets you to go through the crap better than the knowledge that you're going to have to lug it to a new location. 2. Throw everything away! :) At least throw away what you can (I say toss any and all receipts, and anything reproducible) and buy a holder for the rest. Remember, the garbage is your friend...
Becca :o)
i know what you mean about the paper scraps with importatnt things. my favorite are the ones i write down while listening to the classical stations and the vocab cards i sometimes make while reading a book with lots of good words. and the random phone numbers without names next to them. those are usually the ones scrawled on my nightstand notepad, hehehe... jk, of course, darn it. i just throw all my receipts into a tin i have - the importatnt ones that is - and when i do taxes, i just go through my itemized bank statements so i don't have to deal with receipts. very easy. just highlight them and add 'em up.
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